Come to talk about a certain NFL team. Team with a lot of tradition, going way back to its days in old All-American Football Conference back in the '40s. This is a team that hasn't been to a Super Bowl. They got close, a couple of times, but they kept losing to the same team, right on the precipice. Sound familiar?
Lately this team has fallen on hard times. They have an owner who is barely out of short pants. They were essentially run into the ground by a megalomaniac. There is scant talent on either side of the football. By general consensus, this team, this organization, is the very worst in professional football. Sound familiar?
The kid owner hires a former assistant to a Certified Coaching Genius. The new guy is pretty sharp, but nobody knows for sure where the Certified Coaching Genius's skills ended and where the his begins. He's an untested quantity as a head coach. The future looks dire at worst, and uncertain at best. Sound familiar?
No, I'm not talking about my beloved Cleveland Browns, obviously, because I wouldn't be playing this silly 'who am I talking about game' with y'all. I'm talking about the winter of 1979. San Francisco, California. The team is the 49ers. That other team, the one they always lost to in the clutch? The Cowboys. The young owner is Edward J. DeBartolo, Jr. The megalomaniac is general manager Joe Thomas. The former assistant is Bill Walsh, and the Certified Coaching Genius is Paul Brown. This thing we Browns fans are looking at? It's happened before.
At the outset of the 1970s, the 49ers exploded into the elite of the NFC. John Brodie and Gene Washington led the best offense in football, and San Francisco took NFC West titles in 1970, 1971, and 1972. They were at home for the 1970 NFC Championship Game, were tied 3-3 at halftime, and lost to Dallas, 17-10. In 1971 they traveled to brand-new Texas Stadium for the NFC Championship, and the Cowboys beat them again, 14-3. '72 hurt the worst. The Niners got the Cowboys at Candlestick Park in the Divisional Playoff, got a Vic Washington return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff, led 21-3 before halftime, still led 28-13 midway through the fourth quarter, missed a short field goal that would have sewed it up, and allowed Roger Staubach to lead Dallas to 17 points in five minutes to lose, 30-28. It was the late game on the same day as Franco Harris's "Immaculate Reception".
The 49ers fell to 5-9 in 1973. They had two more losing seasons, and went a middling 8-6 in '76. Edward DeBartolo Jr. bought the club on March 31, 1977 for a cool 17 million. One of Eddie's first acts was to bring in Joe Thomas to run the football operation.
The Megalomanic
Joe Thomas is a man who built an altar to himself, and sacrificed himself on it. He was instrumental in tranforming the Minnesota Vikings from an expansion team into a perennial NFC power. He moved on to Miami, where he acquired 21 of the 22 starters on the Dolphins' undefeated 1972 team. Not surprisingly, Joe Thomas became known as something of a whiz at spotting talent, especially the proverbial "under the radar" type-guys. At about the time Miami was hoisting the first of two straight Vince Lombardi Trophies, he also became a man with a penchant for melting welcome mats under his shoes.
Forced out of Miami, Joe Thomas took his eye for talent to Baltimore, where the Colts were downtrodden with an aging team. Thomas came in and tossed out a bunch of Colt legends- Unitas, Mike Curtis, John Mackey. He burned a lot of bridges with Baltimore fans, but slowly, Thomas built a new power in horseshoe helmets. In 1972 he drafted Lydell Mitchell, Bruce Laird, and Stan White (in the 17th round, from Ohio State and Kent Roosevelt High School). In '73 he drafted Bert Jones. In '74 he drafted John Dutton, Roger Carr, Fred Cook, and Freddie Scott. The 1974 Colts went 2-12. The '75 Colts started 1-4, won their last nine games, and took the AFC East Championship. The team's official highlight film, "Miracle on 33rd Street" became a paeon to Joe Thomas.
But Thomas's rapidly inflating ego offset his good work in Baltimore. A power struggle between the GM and head coach Ted Marchibroda triggered Marchibroda's surprise resignation in the preseason of 1976. Angry Colts players rallied behind Marchibroda. Baltimore owner Robert Irsay was forced to pick sides between his team and his general manager. He picked his team. Thomas was fired, only to resurface in San Francisco. This time there was no Marchibroda, no rival- just Eddie DeBartolo, who was 17 years younger than his GM. Thomas has full authority over personnel in San Francisco.
He wielded that authority with catastrophic results. Quarterback Jim Plunkett was cut, only to reemerge as a starter for a Super Bowl winner across the bay in Oakland. The 49ers limped to a 5-9 record in 1977. Thomas fired two head coaches during the '77 season. The following winter, Thomas sent four draft choices- his second and third in '78, and his first and fourth in '79- to Buffalo for O.J. Simpson. Simpson gained 1,053 yards in two seasons with the 49ers. In 1978, San Francisco crumbled, losing 14 games. Thomas fired two more coaches during the season. Buffalo's extra first-round selection became the top pick in the draft in 1979, thanks in no small part to the machinations of Joe Thomas.
But Thomas didn't confine his scorched-earth policy to the artificial playing field at Candlestick Park. On his orders, three decades of 49er memorabilia- programs, media guides, game films, the very charter of the team, stuff you can't put a price on- was simply thrown away. Said Thomas, '"History begins today. Get all this crap out of here. We don't want any of this.'" Like the Browns, the 49ers had never been to a Super Bowl, but they had had a rich and vibrant history in San Francisco. None of this mattered to Thomas. In the words of Carmen Policy, Joe Thomas,
"...wanted to re-create the 49ers, in his own image."
The image of the Joe Thomas 49ers turned out to be four head coaches, one trade of macro-disastrous proportions, a 7-23 record, and a fan base that was so alienated it made the relationship between Butch Davis and the Cleveland fans look like a Roman orgy. Following the 1978 season, DeBartolo did the only thing he could do- he fired Joe Thomas, whose brilliant but increasingly erratic career ended in a gotterdammrung of his own making.
Bill Walsh
On January 9, 1979, DeBartolo hired Bill Walsh as head coach and general manager. The 47-year old Walsh was best known as an assistant to Paul Brown with the Cincinnati Bengals, and had helped design the original West Coast Offense, with players like Kenny Anderson, Charlie Joiner, Chip Myers, Isaac Curtis, and Bob Trumpy. Thanks to the combined minds of Brown and his protege, the Bengals were 5th, 4th, and 2nd in the NFL in total offense from 1973 through '75, and went 28-14 with an AFC Central Division title and two playoff appearances. Walsh was on the short list to replace Brown when the legend retired as head coach following the 1975 season, but Brown, who also owned the Bengals, opted instead for his offensive line coach, Bill "Tiger" Johnson. It was maybe the worst move of Paul Brown's career, and one the Bengals would regret- twice over.
The jilted Walsh headed to San Diego, where he helped improve the Chargers' offense from 25th in the league to 11th, and oversaw Dan Fout's first good season at quarterback. Then he moved on to Stanford University, where he guided the Cardinal to a 17-7 record and two bowl victories in 1977 and '78. So on paper, Walsh had been quite a success wherever he went. But there were plenty of questions. He had never head-coached in the NFL before. For whatever reason, Paul Brown didn't consider him coaching timber. The professorial Walsh didn't look, or act, like an NFL head coach. In reality, the hiring was somewhat of a desperation move on the part of DeBartolo- the 49ers were seen as such a basket case that no one else really wanted the job.
Working without a first-round selection, Walsh still managed to snag Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana in the third round and Clemson wide receiver Dwight Clark in the tenth round of the 1979 draft. In his first season, the 49ers posted a second straight 2-14 record, but improved exponentially on offense. In the 1980 draft, Walsh picked up Earl Cooper, Keena Turner, and Craig Puki. Montana became a starter midway through the '80 season, in which the Niners improved to 6-10. In the '81 draft, Walsh selected Ronnie Lott, Eric Wright, and Carlton Williamson. The 1981 49ers went 13-3 and won their first NFC West title since 1972. In the '81 NFC Championship Game, the 49ers overcame the nightmares of their playoff losses to Dallas and beat the Cowboys on the famous pass from Montana to Clark. The rest, as they say, is history.
To make a long story a little longer, the parallels between today's Browns and yesterdays 49ers are rather striking. I'm looking for Phil Savage to draft a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback this spring. I'm looking for the Browns to defeat the Broncos in the 2007 AFC Championship Game. I'm looking for a dynasty in Cleveland. If it could happen in San Francisco, which back in the day was just about the last place the flowers of success could be expected to bloom, it could happen here.
Our Browns Posted: 11/28/2005by: Daniel J. Spano So far in 2005,Our Browns have been so very disappointing again. I thought with the new Romeo Crennel era that they would drastically improve from the Butch Davis days. . Last week we had some real hope when we beat the Miami Dolphins (lowly)22-0. The defense made great strides by week 11 and with a running game that looks legitimate for the first time since 1985 it looked like our Browns had real promise. So what if we went 8-8 the first year after Butch Davis, but the day after the Vikings game, which is today, it's so depressing to see a team takes a giant step backward that it will be hard to watch the rest of the season. Maybe it was a lot to do with the injury of Gary Baxter, who I think is a great corner, maybe that's why we got beat so many times by the passing of a mediocre quarterback. Where do we go from here? I'm damned tired of losing. Now we don't even know if Charlie Frye is NFL material in the eyes of Romeo. HELP!! Dan from Kent,Oh.
i can't, i can't, i can't stand losing Posted: 2/25/2005by: Charlie Who is going to line up behind the center this year? Holcomb? Why can't the browns be good?
At least with Romeo they seem to be trying to bring in winners, which in my opinion is as important as anything. I just don't know if I can bring myself to drop the cheese on the Ticket if the Browns are going to go 6-10. I have seen enough of that shit.
Well, here's to hoping that the new leadership can right this ship before too long.
